Network controller - sideband interface port controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017052913-A1
Application number	US-201615343347-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 4, 2016
Priority date	Nov 7, 2014
Publication date	Feb 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A network interface controller includes a media access controller and a host adapter. The host adapter includes a transmit route connected to receive an in-band packet from a host and further connected to transmit the in-band packet to the media access controller. The network interface controller also includes a sideband port controller connected to receive a sideband packet destined for a network from a sideband endpoint and further connected to transmit the sideband packet to the host adapter. The host adapter further includes a host buffer to store the in-band packet, a sideband buffer to store the sideband packet, and an arbiter connected to allow, at different times, the in-band packet to advance along the transmit route from the host buffer to the media access controller and the sideband packet to advance along the transmit route from the sideband buffer to the media access controller.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of transmitting data in a network interface controller, the method comprising:
receiving an in-band packet from a host and storing the in-band packet in a host buffer; receiving a sideband packet from a sideband port controller and storing the sideband packet in a sideband buffer; determining, with an arbiter, which of the in-band packet in the host buffer and the sideband packet in the sideband buffer to transmit to a media access controller; transmitting, at a time, the in-band packet in the host buffer to the media access controller and from the media access controller to a network; and transmitting, at a different time, the sideband packet in the sideband buffer to the media access controller and from the media access controller to the network.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the arbiter gives the in-band packet higher priority than the sideband packet.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining which of the in-band packet and the sideband packet to transmit to the media access controller comprises incrementing a count when the in-band packet is transmitted to the media access controller, the count being reset when the sideband packet is transmitted, and transmitting the sideband packet to the media access controller when the count has reached a certain value.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Aldebert Jean-Paul
• Basso Claude
• Frenoy Jean-Luc
• Verplanken Fabrice J

Classifications

• G06F13/382 Primary

  using universal interface adapter · CPC title

• G06F2213/3808

  Network interface controller · CPC title

• G06F13/3625 Primary

  using a time dependent access · CPC title

• H04L69/12

  Protocol engines · CPC title

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title